Saturday, March 25, 2017

Bangladesh, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Dhaka international airport yesterday evening. Police said the man, in his thirties, blew the explosives tied to his waist around 7 PM local time at a police post at the airport. Police said no one was injured in the blast.

Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Security has been tightened at airports and prisons across Bangladesh after the attack. The attack comes a week after a similar attack on a nearby Rapid Action Battalion camp on March 17.

US President Donald Trump has withdrawn his healthcare bill after it failed to gain enough support to pass in Congress. Trump expressed his disappointment and surprise after House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan withdrew the bill due to lack of support. Trump said that the Republicans only lack little votes and the Democrats would not contribute a vote.

The Republican party enjoys a simple majority in the House with 235 members. However, due to opposition from some of its own party lawmakers, it could not muster the majority 215 votes. The White House and Trump had put up a brave face even till the last minute when they tried their best to muster support for their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.

India’s martime prowess, the Navy has successfully conducted the maiden trial firing of newly installed surface-to-air Barak missile system from its aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. A Navy official said in New Delhi that during the firing carried out in the Arabian Sea, the missile was fired against a live low flying high speed target. He said the target was successfully engaged and destroyed.

The firing was conducted as part of the ‘Operational Readiness Inspection’ of the Western Fleet by Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Naval Command, from 21 to 23 March. The official said the missile marks a significant milestone in providing air interception and defence capabilities and enhanced operational capabilities of the Navy’s aircraft carrier and the flee.

CBI has filed a supplementary charge sheet naming five more persons as accused in a coal scam case against Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal and others. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar yesterday took cognizance of the final report and summoned all the new accused named in it on the 10th of next month. In its final report, the probe agency has named as accused Jindal Steel’s adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra’s Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Mumbai’s Essar Power Limited Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo among others.

The court had earlier directed the agency to expeditiously file its further probe report as sufficient time has already been granted to it. The case also involved ex-Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda as accused.

The two winners for the first chapter of Martha Farrell Award for Excellence in Women’s Empowerment, for the two categories “Most Promising Individual” and “Best Organization for Gender Equality” will be announced and felicitated at the ceremony.

You are cordially invited to grace the SWAGAT PARV of Indian New Year with DRAUPADI ANTARKATHA, a sensitive dialogue between Krishna and Draupadi, through a Dance Drama (Kathak) , a production of Draupadi Dream Trust.

We stand united and demand improvement of our public health infrastructure !!

Why are patients and doctors being pitted against each other ??

The real reason behind the recent incidents of violence in hospitals is the crumbling state of Public Hospitals and Public Health services in the State . The Government has shrewdly made it appear as a Doctors v/s Patients issue ….while it is actually due to the apathy of the State Governments.

In the current state of affairs …. Both the Patients and Doctors are insecure.

And just symptomatic treatment will not help. The real cure lies in an overall improvement of the Public health care delivery system.

Patients and Doctors will unitedly march to reaffirm their trust and to demand that the condition of Public Hospitals in the state be vastly improved.

FM approves the re-organisation of the field formations of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) for the implementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST); CBEC is being renamed as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), after getting legislative approval

Reorganisation of the field formations of the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) for the implementation of Goods & Services Tax (GST) has been approved by the Union Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley. The existing formations of Central Excise & Service Tax under the CBEC have been re-organised to implement and enforce the provisions of the proposed Goods & Services Tax Laws.

The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) is being renamed as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), after getting legislative approval. The proposed CBIC shall, inter alia, supervise the work of all its field formations and Directorates and assist the Government in policy making in relation to GST, continuing Central Excise levy & Customs functions.

For a robust IT Network, the Directorate General of Systems under CBEC is being strengthened. The Directorate General Tax Payer Services is being expanded for greater out- reach for facilitating smooth transition for the taxpayers to the GST environment. The existing training establishment, to be renamed as National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics will have an all India presence, to enable capacity building to the employees of the indirect tax administration of the Centre as well as of the State Governments and to members of Trade and Industry. The renamed Directorate General of Goods & Service Tax Intelligence is also being strengthened and expanded to become an important wing of the Government in its fight against Tax Evasion and Black Money.

India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have been partnering on the economic corridor approach for some time now. Economic Corridor Development contributes to and stimulates economic development along the route. The economic corridor approach involves leveraging infrastructure connectivity and developing urban areas as growth centers and gateways, to unlock the full potential of markets.

Since late 2013, ADB has been supporting studies on how to transform transport corridors into dynamic economic corridors. These studies considered how to best link the existing and planned transport corridors in various modes (surface, maritime, and multimodal transport) with other economic corridors such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, the Bangalore-Chennai Economic Corridor, Amritsar- Kolkata Industrial Corridor and the corridors in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

“This India-ADB partnership has in fact yielded useful lessons on Economic Corridor Development (ECD), through their joint work on the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), India’s first coastal corridor” noted Mr. Ronald Antonio Butiong, Director of ADB South Asia Department’s Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division. “The ECEC, which runs along the entire east coast from Kolkata to Kanyakumari, is a multimodal, regional maritime corridor that can play a vital role in unifying the large domestic market, as well as integrating the Indian economy with the dynamic global value chains of Southeast and East Asia.” Aside from an ambitious infrastructure program, the ECEC involves developing skills, and creating an attractive regulatory environment, bringing in new investments, and nurturing existing businesses to grow and innovate, and create much needed jobs.

Phase 1 of the ECEC is the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) which covers 11 districts in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. ADB helped prepare the Conceptual Development Plan (CDP) and Regional Perspective Plan (RPP) for VCIC, which served as the bases for the Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor Development Program, which was approved by the ADB Board in September 2016. The Program comprises a multi-tranche financing facility (MFF), a grant, and a policy-based loan (PBL) for a total investment amount of $631 million. The MFF and grant will support priority infrastructure investments in the VCIC region and the PBL will support policy reforms and institutional development in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

ADB’s indicative lending pipeline for 2017–2019 to support economic corridor development in South Asia includes: (i) the VCIC Development Program MFF Tranche 2 in India in 2018, with an ADB loan: $250 million; and (ii) Regional Urban Development Project in Nepal in 2017, with an ADB loan: $150 million.

Earlier, ADB has developed a SASEC Operational Plan (OP) 2016-2025 which identifies promoting economic corridor development (ECD) as of one its key strategic focus areas. The SASEC OP, adopted by the SASEC member countries in June 2016, is the SASEC program’s first comprehensive long-term plan to promote greater economic cooperation among its member countries, bringing regional cooperation to a higher level with the aim of extending physical and economic linkages not only within SASEC but also with East and Southeast Asia.

Under the SASEC OP, the operational focus on economic corridors will involve promoting synergies between corridors across SASEC countries. “Such approach adopted by the SASEC program should maximize the corridors’ development impacts through improved cross-border linkages between corridors, and better coordination of policies, plans and programs for multi-sector infrastructure interventions. This would result in stronger consistency between and among transport, urban and industrial development efforts within the sub-region”, stressed Mr. Dinesh Sharma, Special Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Though the movement of people in pursuit of work is not new, labour migration appears to be a growing phenomenon in the South Asian region. Empirical studies and papers analysing government data have shown that migration is not a simple movement from village to city in this region, but involves multiple streams and patterns including short-term, iterative, permanent and return migration across short and long distances. This workshop explores aspects that link human mobility and social transformation in sending and receiving communities, especially in the context of labour migration.

Organised by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and the French Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH) as well as supported by the Tata Trusts’ SHRAMIC initiative, this workshop has been conceived as a platform for young researchers, scholars and practitioners to share their work and receive feedback from experienced and knowledgeable experts. The 15-odd papers being presented have been selected from over 70 entries in response to a call for papers in December 2016 and represent the work of young researchers across the South Asia region. For the detailed program, click here.

New Delhi, March 24: On the last day of the event hosted by GAIL (India) Ltd., Oil India Limited (OIL) emerges out to be the winning team with a Gross score of 412. The team comprised of Simarjeet Singh, Yuvraj Sandhu, Harimohan Singh, Varun Parikh and Kshitish Naveed Kaul which skillfully won the tournament. The team Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) comprising of Aadil Bedi, Tapender Ghai, Dhruv Sheoran, Sunit Chawrasia and Jaiveer Atwal became the runners-up team with a gross score of 434.

India’s First Women Cricket League WCL’s #T20 Inter-College Talent Hunt Tournament is first in the series of activities to scout the hidden talent to provide exposure and platform to promote Women Cricket in India

Woman of the Match was awarded to Neha Chillar of Jesus & Mary college (JMC) who bowled 4 overs 5 wickets 12 runs.

Best Player of the Tournament was given to Aarti Dhama of Gargi College who scored 94 runs 2 wickets.

New Delhi, 24th March, 2017:

The finals of WCL #T20 Inter-College Talent Hunt Tournament played at Roshanara Club, New Delhi today between the most deserving women cricket teams of JMC College & Gargi college was won by Jesus & Mary College (JMC) who beat Gargi college by 37 runs.

Jesus & Mary college (JMC) won the toss and elected to Bat. Jesus & Mary college (JMC) scored 88 Runs losing 9 wickets in 20 overs. Gargi College were all out for 51 runs.

The winning trophy was awarded to the Captain and the team of JMC College by Shri. Bishan Singh Bedi, Former India Captain at the Award Ceremony held at Roshanara Club amongst all the Chief Guests, participating teams, Coaches, Umpires, eminent Sports Personalities.

Shri. Bishan Singh Bedi said “Women Cricket League is a very good beginning. They should keep supporting this earnest endeavour to promote women cricket in India. He gave his heartiest wishes and blessings to women cricketers to do well Nationally & Internationally.”

Smt. Sunita Sharma said “The students are lucky to have the WCL #T20 Inter-College Talent Hunt Tournament. More such cricket tournaments in School & College level, State & City level should take place. There should be more job opportunities to encourage young girls to start taking sports (cricket) as their career option. Good sponsors should come forward to support women cricket in India.”

Speaking at the Award Ceremony, the enthused Mrs. Vandana Thakur, Managing Partner, WCL said “We are very happy that the first ever WCL #T20 Inter-College Talent Hunt Tournament was a mega success. Some very talented outstanding women Cricket players in the field of bowling, batting & fielding have been identified. These players have great potential to play at National & International level if given right training.”

Gargi College reached finals by defeating Kamla Nehru college by 6 wickets in the Semifinal match and JMC college reached the finals by defeating Lakshmibai College with 99 Runs in Semifinals.

Although Gargi college couldn’t win the finals, Ms Shweta Sharma their fast bowler took the maximum no of wickets (11 wickets) in the tournament. Also Aarushi Goyal player of Jesus & Mary college (JMC) scored maximum runs (99 runs) in the tournament.

Speaking at the Award Ceremony, Mrs Pooja Sharma, Managing Partner, WCL said “We are getting good responses from women cricketers across India. It is time India has leagues like Women Big Bash Cricket League, Australia or Women’s Cricket Super League, London. We are more than optimistic that WCL will take Indian Women Cricket beyond boundaries and get them long due International name and fame they deserved.”

“The main aim of organising WCL’s #T20 Inter-College Talent Hunt Tournament which is first in the series of our activities was to scout the hidden talent to provide exposure and platform to promote Women Cricket in India. We are glad to complete the first initial phase of WCL effectively and plan to initiate the next phase soon to scout more budding talents from across India”Mrs. Vandana Thakur added.

Sharing future plan of Women Cricket League Mr Parul Jain said “WCL will scout hidden talent from schools and colleges in small towns and cities in India by organizing similar WCL #T20 Talent Hunt Tournaments, international clubs and even non-cricket playing countries.”

The final teams will be declared on WCL’s website. The website www.womencricketleague.com is open to all aspiring woman cricketers for free registration.